Wycombe DC – reserve sites infrastructure roundtable

Town planning update

Thames Water

April 2015 Agenda

Thames Water and Planning Arena

Infrastructure delivery

Key infrastructure issues

Concluding points

Further information Thames Water Utilities Limited

Thames Water facts and figures

Water services

- 9.2 million clean water customers
- 2,526m litres of drinking water supplied per day
- 87 WTWs, 30 raw water reservoirs, 288 pumping stations and 235 underground service reservoirs
- 31,186 km of water mains

Sewerage services

- 14.5 million wastewater customers
- 350 STWs treating an average of more than 4bn litres per day
- 65,585km of sewer, 2,800 pumping stations and 1.2 million manholes
- Two sludge-powered generators and 21 chp plants generating 176 GWh of renewable electricity Too much or too little? Planning arena

Responding to Planning Policy….

• National policy • NPPF – consider cumulative impact • PPG – ensure new development & infrastructure is aligned

• Development Plans • Wycombe Local Plan

• Neighbourhood Plans Planning arena

Responding to planning applications:

- **Infrastructure** — ensure alignment through phasing to avoid issues such as

  - Flooding
  - Water supply constraints
  - Pollution

- **Drainage and Water supply infrastructure** — strategies and assessments may be required

- **Amenity** — for example noise, traffic should be considered

- **Odour** — encroaching close to proximity to sewage works or pumping station

- **Use of Grampian style planning conditions** — no development should start until….. Business Plan

Business Plan agreed for 2015 – 2020

2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Business Plan agreed for 2020 – 2025

Project planning for 2015/16-2018

Draft Business plan 2020 - 2025 submitted to Ofwat Delivery

Factors that influence our timescale for infrastructure delivery:

• Clarity of the development scale & impact – housing number & location, is permission in place, where will the connections be made?

• Clarity of the cumulative impact – development s proposed for wider catchment area

• Any potential regulatory changes E.g. consent limit changes?

• Investing – business plan cycles, cost benefit appraisal, requisition route available Our 5 Year Plan 2015-2020

- Fit ‘smart’ meters to locate leaks and encourage customers to save water: 900,000 meters
- Introduce social tariff to halve bills for households least able to pay: estimated 37,000 households
- Reduce risk of odour: 6,600 households
- Improve sewage works to keep pace with population growth: 18 sites
- Increase proportion of own power needs we generate: 33%
- Make rivers cleaner – for example, by improvements that address the Water Framework Directive
- Reduce leakage by 59 million litres per day
- Replace water mains: 881km
- Improve pipes and pumps to keep pace with population growth: 11 locations
- Reduce risk of flooding: 1,799 properties
- Investigate reducing groundwater entering sewers: 14 locations
- Start work on Thames Tideway Tunnel, to prevent tens of millions of tonnes of pollution

Find best way to boost water resources in South-East region

Improve reliability at large water treatment works

Reduce amount of water taken from rivers by 22 million litres Infrastructure issues - Wastewater network

• Sewer flooding • Limited hydraulic capacity • Groundwater or surface water infiltration • Blockages

• Network upgrades will be required

• Delivered by developer and / or Thames Water

• Examples of solutions: • Pumping stations, sewer upsizing, onsite treatment Infrastructure issues – wastewater treatment

Sewage treatment

- Sewage treated at Little Marlow and Princes Risborough STWs
- Upgrades to STWs expected
- Delivered by Thames Water Infrastructure issues – water resources and supply

Water resources

- Short, medium and long term proposals to ensure sufficient water resources – e.g. leakage reduction, water conservation, new resources – provided by Thames Water

Water supply

- Local network reinforcement maybe required
- Delivered by Thames Water Key input from a planning perspective

General

• Local Plan policies that support developers considering water and wastewater in an integrated approach to their development

Wastewater treatment and water resources

• Work closely with council and developers on timing and phasing of development

Water and wastewater network

• Encourage developers to submit water and drainage strategies with their planning application

• Use planning conditions where needed Conclusion

• Working closely with key stakeholders

• Ensure developments do not compromise our assets or local amenity

• Align infrastructure with new development through the development plan led system

• Grampian conditions to be used where appropriate Key contacts

- Planning policy consultations

  - Thameswaterplanningpolicy@savills.com

- Planning application consultations

  - Devcon.team@thameswater.co.uk

- Developer Services (e.g. developer funded drainage strategies)

  - Developerservices@thameswater.co.uk

- Thames Water Town Planning Manager (covering planning policy & Thames Water led planning applications)

  - Mark.Mathews@thameswater.co.uk

- Thames Water Development Planning Manager (covering 3rd party planning application responses)

  - Mark.Dickinson@thameswater.co.uk Further information

- National Planning Policy Guidance – water and wastewater section – See Planning Portal

- Planning Advice for Integrated Water Management (2014) See www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/natcap.

- Thames Water Town Planning Guide (being updated Autumn 2014)

- Thames Water Business Plan for 2015 to 2020 - see Thames Water website

- Thames Water - Water Resources Management Plan for 2015 to 2040 - see Thames Water website Questions ?